Medicare recipients either confused or at best unimpressed with discount cards

[Guest guest]

Medicare recipients either confused or at best unimpressed with discount

cards

07 May 2004

According to the majority of experts and journalists in the USA, most

medicare recipients are either confused or at best unimpressed with discount

cards.

Add to this the way the Republicans and Democrats tug at it like a political

child, one praising it while the other ridicules it, and you have a mad

circus with the consumer in the middle.

One thing most people, whatever their political inclinations are, agree on,

is that the whole program is too complicated. There are dozens of cards and

over 70 discount plans. The consumer has to sift through and make decisions

while drug companies can suddenly change drug prices which only frustrate

and confuse the consumer more.

Imagine you are an old aged pensioner (senior citizen). You manage to make

your choice, and you choose it. If the drug company raises its drug price

the next day, your whole choice becomes meaningless.

To add to the confusion, the US DHHS (Dept Health and Human Services) posted

wrong price lists on its web site. Retailers said the mistakes tended to be

higher prices than lower ones. Walgreens said 50% of its drugs were quoted

with the wrong price on the web site.

Those on the bottom income scale, pensioners (retired people) whose single

income is lower than $12,500 per year and couples whose income is lower than

$16,800 a year will benefit the most as the first $600¹s worth of drugs is

free for them.

In order to get one of these great cards you have to pay $30 dollars.

Many consumers complain that most of the discounts are on the backs of huge

drug price rises. A bit like having a car that¹s going for $10,000, raising

the price to $15,000 and then offering a 10% discount.

The sophisticated shopper knows he/she can get better discounts elsewhere

anyway (rather than using the card). Just get your drugs from the friendly

Canadian online pharmacies and you will see the drug discount cards offer

pretty pathetic bargains.

Americans pay the highest prices in the world for drugs. Pensioners

(retirees) have to pay for their drugs. In most other developed countries

their prescriptions would either be free or heavily discounted. In the UK

anyone over the age of 65 gets all his/her prescription drugs completely

free (as do children, the unemployed and pregnant women).

Some pensioners are having to pay over $10,000 per year just for their

drugs. If they buy from Canada they can make savings of up to 45%.